Can we talk about the offensive line

[wtw2400]

It's been awful this year. There's no other way to put it. The Bama DL was in our backfield before we could even hand it off to our RBs half the time.

I think our biggest issue offensively has been them period and when you rewatch the games from that perspective. Fitz hasn't had time to throw, and our RBs haven't been able to get the lanes they need to run vs good defenses. Yeah they can do great against Kansas State or Louisiana Tech but teams like Kentucky or LSU have stuffed us.

I know our fanbase and media thinks something as simple as "giving it to the RBs" will fix everything. It will absolutely work against Arkansas and Ole Miss since their defenses don't exist. But let's face it, our OL has disappeared this year for the big games. And that to me is something I don't think is getting as much attention as it needs to. Idk if it's coaching, player regression, or what. But this isn't the same ol that we had in 2017.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Yes, this has been an issue,

certainly not our offenses only issue, but a big one.

Part of the ball of wax, that is, just not fitting together.

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Who would’ve thought we would be missing Hevesy that much?

 

[aTotal360]

The OL has played well enough. They've just been undisciplined at times. The UK game was the only shitshow.

 

[wtw2400]

The OL has played well enough. They've just been undisciplined at times. The UK, UF, LSU, and Ala games were the only shitshow.

FIFY

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

Your right. And Hill is freaking awful at pass blocking. Brandon Holloway did a better job

 

[MSUDC11]

I think the interior of our OL is fine but our tackles have really struggled. We underestimated how big of a loss Rankin was, although Eiland did play well last year and seemed like he would be a quality replacement. Reese hasn’t been great either. I am a bit worried about the OL next year without Jenkins and Calhoun. I will cut our tackles a little bit of slack since they are only sophomores, but they have to be much better next year.

 

[msstate7]

I think the interior of our OL is fine but our tackles have really struggled. We underestimated how big of a loss Rankin was, although Eiland did play well last year and seemed like he would be a quality replacement. Reese hasn’t been great either. I am a bit worried about the OL next year without Jenkins and Calhoun. I will cut our tackles a little bit of slack since they are only sophomores, but they have to be much better next year.

We do our tackles no favors by using the check with me at the line. We force our tackles to stay set forever and almost always snap the ball right as the clock is running out... this allows DEs to get great jumps every snap. If we ran the office faster, it would make a world of difference for our tackles

 

[Cooterpoot]

We never know who to pick up on the blitz. Eiland regressed. Coaching on the OL sucks and QB holds the ball. RB and TE struggle helping.

 

[MSUDawgFan86]

Your right. And Hill is freaking awful at pass blocking. Brandon Holloway did a better job

Hill pass blocked better than Williams on Saturday though. He’s getting better. A-Train got nick smoked for a sack against Bama.

 

[57stratdawg]

As best I can tell, we run almost nothing to help them.

Counters and traps slow down DTs.
Draws and screens slow down DE / LBs.

As best I can tell, we have none of those calls in our playbook. Our calls make it really tough on our OL.

 

[JoMo MoJo]

It’s hard to block Bama d line when the are over the LOS before we ever snapnthe damn ball.

 

[codeDawg]

Who would’ve thought we would be missing Hevesy that much?

Mullen ran an offense that Hev coached for. We didn’t need athletes, we just needed big bodies. It wasn’t an offense that was going to light up the scoreboard, but when it hummed it hummed.

JoMo’s offense requires people to block. We’ve been recruiting at the bottom for years, and this is what we get from it.

 

[RiverCityDawg]

Hill pass blocked better than Williams on Saturday though. He’s getting better. A-Train got nick smoked for a sack against Bama.

This is true.

 

[mcdawg22]

It’s hard to hold a block for 17 seconds, while we slowly hand the ball off to a runningback.

 

[Seinfeld]

Question for those that can break O-line play down better than myself - Have they truly sucked or are they simply being asked to do something that they aren’t capable of doing? I ask for two reasons

1. If we’re simply comparing year over year performance, then the RBs have been garbage this year, but we all know that this year’s numbers aren’t because Hill/Williams aren’t capable

2. Just high level speaking, I’d tend to think that blocking would be quite different when you don’t know whether your QB is about to run, pass, or hand it off as opposed to knowing your exact assignment

 

[HumpDawgy]

Looney could have done a better job than this. The land shark coach didn't do a great job in my opinion.

 

[codeDawg]

Question for those that can break O-line play down better than myself - Have they truly sucked or are they simply being asked to do something that they aren’t capable of doing? I ask for two reasons

1. If we’re simply comparing year over year performance, then the RBs have been garbage this year, but we all know that this year’s numbers aren’t because Hill/Williams aren’t capable

2. Just high level speaking, I’d tend to think that blocking would be quite different when you don’t know whether your QB is about to run, pass, or hand it off as opposed to knowing your exact assignment

First, the OL has been hot garbage. The tackles have been absolute turnstiles to anybody with talent. I would expect a few folks would get to us, but the rate has been rediculous.

The interior has been just as bad and it’s the reason Fitz is making keep reads. Teams are running inside blitzes and guys are just taking the wrong assignments and miscommunicating.

That leaves it to the RB to clean up. This is why Mullen put so much emphasis on pass blocking by the RB. He knew he had a defencincy there and had to have somebody to help.

Mullen had years and years of adapting his scheme to cover the deficiencies of lower talent. You want to know why we could never get up for the big game? It’s because our scheme was duct tape and bailing wire. It worked pretty well though. JoMo has to either start adapting to the reality of the talent situation or improve it.

My question is really why we don’t run many screens, pitches, and counters. The counter was a staple in the Mullen offense and it drove me nuts because it is so slow, but it gets people to overcommit in the wrong direction.

It makes me wonder if the guys are not executing there well in practice or something. It’s just too obvious that an intelligent guy like Joe wouldn’t see it.

Last thing I will say, is that when we can block we can absolutely run the score up. It’s the OL that begins the issues.